Wade Blevins sent me some of his "One Bugs" in the mail last week to try out on our East TN waters and I got a chance today to see how well they worked. I headed over to the French Broad with my canoe hoping to find some topwater smallies again but they were hard to coax into biting today. Caught 4 average males and saw several females on nest so I decided to go after something to take home to the wife. I haven't kept fish in a long time but decided to keep some today. Caught these on both the yellow and the orange one bugs dead drifting them tight against a rock cliff of all places!
Thanks for sending me these Wade, they work great.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l114/gltroutman/009.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l114/gltroutman/014.jpg

Supper tomorrow night!

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l114/gltroutman/018.jpg

AL trout bum

04-30-2012, 09:08 PM

Those one bugs are something else and Wade is a real nice guy for sure. He introduced me to the addiction that is fly fishing for smallmouths, gave me some one bugs, and later taught me to tie them!

Knothead

05-01-2012, 09:20 AM

Flyfishing is addictive for any species of fish. Those are some nice bluegill! Do you know that my wife makes some great hushpuppies????
Do you have a recipe for the fly to share with us?

Wade Blevins

05-01-2012, 09:35 AM

Great to see those flies have been put to good use!

Some of my dad's creations were published several years ago in the Fly Fishing and Tying Journal magazine. Sam's One Bug and Sam's L-Eye-Bee. A friend from TN posted this report several years ago on FAOL.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/011507fotw.php

I sent Gary a copy of the article and can get copies made for instruction. I will see if I can post up a PDF link.
Regards,
~~~waders~~~

Troutman

05-01-2012, 05:33 PM

I had today off of work , so I went back to the river again! Caught one pretty good size smallie about 16" this morning and several smaller ones throughout the day. I took a 3 wt bluegill/brookie rod also and caught several more bluegills and redbreast on the one bugs. Had a nice smallmouth on for a couple of jumps before a quick release on the yellow bug. Great couple of days out on the water.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l114/gltroutman/012.jpg

AL trout bum

05-01-2012, 08:16 PM

The one bug strikes again! I am want to try it on trout, maybe during hopper season. I bet it will work.

Wade Blevins

05-03-2012, 03:10 PM

Gary,
Great to see you are enjoying the bugs and the fish as well.
Yesterday I took my middle son out fishing...it was his gift to me for my birthday ;^). We were able to get on some bream beds on Guntersville then headed to our home creek for a little smallie action. We both had about two dozen bream and a few smallies a piece but no real size.

As the days get longer and hotter sometimes those smaller flies can entice a bite when nothing else will. My dad was adamant about just letting them sit for 10 seconds before you move them. Can't recall the number of times he would hook up with a big fish that was simply sitting under the bug as it splashed down and then a simple take about the 9-10 second mark.

Matt,
My dad once said he had people report from 7 countries with over 40 different types of fish that have been caught on the one bugs, including cutthroat, rainbows, browns and even grayling. So yes the trout will eat them too.

Knothead

05-03-2012, 07:37 PM

Wade, thanks for the link for the recipe! The only thing I differ on is that I cut the legs off store-bought poppers as I find that small bluegill get greedy and drag it down. When you set the hook, you get nothing. I give the popper a bit of action with the rod tip and short pulls on the line.

mattblick

05-04-2012, 09:56 AM

This is a great looking fly, definitely going to give it a shot.

Anyone know a "cheap" way to get 1/4" closed cell foam tubes? Spending 35 cents per fly on just the foam tube - it just seems there should be a way to do it for less.

You can get a 100' roll of closed cell foam backer rod at any hardware store for about $10.00; but only in Grey.

I read that you can sharpen one end of metal tubing and mount it in a drill to cut out foam - how long should the foam cylinders be? I'd think 1" thick ought to be long enough for this method - I wonder how many foam sheets you'd have to glue together for that 1" of depth to cut, and if several layers of 77 adhesive would affect flotation.

-Matt-

Edit - After some searching I found a recommendation to use a Cork Borer - set of 6 different sizes 5mm - 11mm can be had for about $11. So now all I need is a recommendation for getting a thicker sheet/block of foam to cut the bodies out of..

Wade Blevins

05-04-2012, 11:16 AM

This is a great looking fly, definitely going to give it a shot.

Anyone know a "cheap" way to get 1/4" closed cell foam tubes? Spending 35 cents per fly on just the foam tube - it just seems there should be a way to do it for less.

You can get a 100' roll of closed cell foam backer rod at any hardware store for about $10.00; but only in Grey.

I read that you can sharpen one end of metal tubing and mount it in a drill to cut out foam - how long should the foam cylinders be? I'd think 1" thick ought to be long enough for this method - I wonder how many foam sheets you'd have to glue together for that 1" of depth to cut, and if several layers of 77 adhesive would affect flotation.

-Matt-

Edit - After some searching I found a recommendation to use a Cork Borer - set of 6 different sizes 5mm - 11mm can be had for about $11. So now all I need is a recommendation for getting a thicker sheet/block of foam to cut the bodies out of..

Matt,
I have some drill bits designed to cut foam block. I will locate the website _ Found it: http://www.jvlnet.com/~swinters/
He also sells foam blocks. It's not the easiest way but does work. I have even glued flip flops together to get certain color patterns.

Fortunately my Dad was able to get the cylinders in bulk years ago before they started selling them in packs of 5 2" long posts. I have them in sizes ranging from 1/32 to 3/4 inch and in about 10 colors. Unfortunately I can not seem to find a supplier that will sell in bulk to me anymore.

A small hand held drimmel will work wonders on shaping the bugs as well as making coned bodies or cupped mouths.

As far as bream pulling on the legs. Yes that does happen, but I have also seen days when the legs moving ever so slightly on the water will bring the big fish up to inspect the fly. If you will double up the legs with a medium size round rubber, twist them about 1/4 turn and use a prismacolor marker to run down one size...release and it will give you a perfect striped leg. It tend to show more movement IMHO. I have also found that on certain patterns if you will only put a small set of double stripes near the very end of the legs it looks very much like a dragon fly with wings splayed on the water and has caused some vicious strikes. All that being said I have multiple patterns with no legs only hackle collars and tails that work well too.

Regards,
Wade

Wade Blevins

05-04-2012, 11:24 AM

Check with Byron about foam cylinders at LRO. He can probably order them.
Feathercraft used to sell them and the site below does as well..
http://riverroadcreations.com/FoamCylinders.htm

I have located a company that mass produces closed cell foam but I would have to pay an incredible amount to get them to provide them in core or cylinders.
Still searching on possibilities.

wmwalker

05-04-2012, 11:42 AM

This is a great thread. I am enjoying the information and Wade your one bug is really outstanding. I love to fly flish for bream and Bass and this seems to be the answer for me here in Georgia. Please keep up this information. Thanks again.:smile:

Wade Blevins

05-04-2012, 11:49 AM

This is a great thread. I am enjoying the information and Wade your one bug is really outstanding. I love to fly flish for bream and Bass and this seems to be the answer for me here in Georgia. Please keep up this information. Thanks again.:smile:

Thanks Wyatt- dad never sold a one bug and likely gave out thousands. He wanted people to enjoy it as much as we did. He often tied at many of the conclaves and loved it when the younger generation would get creative with the pattern. It would tickle him to death to know his pattern is alive and well. I miss him very much every day.

His passion was bream and bass. Especially smallmouth. But I think big bluegills put a bigger smile on his face than anything else.

~~~waders~~~
wadeblevins@integrity.com

Troutman

05-04-2012, 03:07 PM

I ordered some 1/4" cylinders a few days ago in black, chart green and yellow. I had some black 3/8" cylinders for wiggle minnows and tied up a couple on size 6 gama stinger hooks. They look really good and I think they will work great as a cicada. would like to find some olive green cylinders.

I fished the yellow and orange 1 bugs that Wade sent me for two days and probably caught well over 60 bluegill and several rockbass and a few small smallmouth and all I had to do was replace the legs. As he said all you do is cast them and let em sit. I would usually jiggle the rod tip to make the legs wiggle some before I picked up for a recast just in case something was inspecting it. That brought on some lightning strikes.